Chapter 8: Emotion and Motivation Flashcards
Emotion
A positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity
James-Lange Theory
stimuli trigger activity in the autonomic nervous system, which in turn produces an emotional experience in the brain
- Emotional experienve is the consequence - not the cause - of our physiological reactions to objects and events in the world
Cannon-Bard Theory
Stimulus simultaneously triggers activity in the autonomic nervous system and emotional experience in the brain
Two-Factor Theory
emotions are inferences about the causes of physiological arousal
- Example
- when you are physiologically aroused in the presence of something you think should scare you, you label that arousal as fear. But if you have precisely the same bodily response in the presence of seomthing that you think should delight you, then you label that arousal as *excitement *
appraisal
an evaluation of the emotion-relevant aspects of a stimulus
- the amygdala is critical to making these appraisals
Fast Pathways and Slow Pathways
According to Joseph LeDoux, information about a stimulus takes two routes simultaneously: the “fast pathway” (shown in pink), which goes from the thalamus directly to the amygdala, and the “slow pathway” (shown in green), which goes from the thalamus to the cortex and then to the amygdala. Because the amygdala receives information from the thalamus before it receives information from the cortex, people can be afraid of something before they know what it is.
Activity when people experience emotions
show increased activity in the amygdala and decreased activity in the cortex
Activity when people inhibit these emotions
they show increased cortical activity and decreased amygdala activity
- In a sense the amygdala presses the emotional gas pedal and the cortex hits the brakes
- Both adults and children with cortical damage have difficulty inhibiting their emotions
Emotion Regulation
the cognitive and behavioral strategies people use to influence their own emotional experience
- typically a way to cheer up
Reappraisal
changing one’s emotional experience by changing the meaning of the emotion-eliciting stimulus
- For example
- participants in one study who watched a circumcision that was described as a joyous religious ritual had slower heart rates, had lower skin conductance levels, and reported less distress than did participants who watched the circumcision but did not hear the same description
Emotional Expression
an observable sign of an emotional state
Universality Hypothesis
emotional expressions have the same meaning for everyone
- every human being naturally expresses happiness with a smile, and every human being naturally understands that a smile signifies happiness
Facial feedback hypothesis
emotional expressions can cause the emotional experiences they signify
- For example
- people feel happier when they are asked to make the sound of a long “e” or to hold a pencil in their teeth (smile expression) than when they are asked to make a sound of long “u” or hold a pencil in their lips
How do people with damaged amygdala’s recognize other people’s emotions?
first off, they have trouble experience fear and anger and are typlically poor at recognizing the expressions of those emotions in others
Display rules
norms for the control of emotional expression
- example
- When your roommate makes a sarcastic remark about your haircut, you may make the facial expression for contempt (accompanied, perhaps, by a reinforcing hand gesture), but when your boss makes the same remark, you probably swallow hard and display a pained smile.
Techniques of Display Rules
- Intensification
- exaggerating the xperssion of one’s emotion
- a person pretends to be more surprised by a gift than she really is
- Deintensification
- muting the expression of one’s emotion
- when the loser of contest tries to look less distressed than he really is
- Masking
- expressing one emotion while felling another
- when a poker player tries to look distressed rather than delighted as she examines a hand with four aces
- Neutralizing
- felling an emotion but displaying no expression
- when a judge tries not to betray his leaning while lawyers are making their arguments
Features the distinguish between sincere and insincere facial expressions
- Morphology
- certain facial muscles tend to resist conscious control
- only geniue smiles crinkles the corners of the eyes
- Symmetry
- expressions are a bit more symmetrical than insincere expressions
- a slightly lopsided smile is less likely to be genuine than is a perfectly even one
- Duration
- sincere expressions tend to last between a half second and 5 seconds
- expressions that last shorter or longer periods are more likely to be insincere
- Temporal Patterning
- sincere expressions appear and disappear smoothly over a few seconds
- insincere expressions tend to have more abrupt onsets and offests
Motivation
the purpse for or psychological cause of an action
hedonic principle
the claim that people are motivated to experience pleasure and avoid pain
Homeostasis
the tendency for a system to take action to keep itself in a particular state
Drive
an internal state caused by physiological needs
- what causes us to want to meet our needs
Bulimia Nervosa
a disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging
Anorexia Nervosa
A disorder characterized by an intense fear of being fat and severe restriction of food intkae
Metabolism
the rate at which energy is used
Human Sexual Response Cycle
the stages of phsiological arousal during sexual activity
Mortality-Salience Hypothesis
the prediction that people who are reminded of their own mortality will work to reinforce their cultural worldviews
Intrinsic Motivation
A motivation to take actions that are themselves rewarding
- Eating a french fry, listening to music
- They are the payoff
Extrinsic Motivation
A motivation to take actions that lead to reward
- work hard for $
- When threats and rewards change intrinsic motivation into extrinsic motivation, unexpected consequences can follow
Conscious Motivations
motivations of which people are aware
Unconscious MOtivations
motivations of which people are not aware
Need for achievement
the motivation to solve worthwhile problems
Approach Motivation
motivation to experience a positive outcome
Avoidance Motivatoin
Motivation no to experience a negative outcome
- tend to be more powerful
Yerkes-Dodson Law
the law dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point. when levels of arousal become too high, performance decreases
- Do not want to be overwhelmed or underwhelmed
- Want to be engaged just enough to be interested - perform best under these conditions
- We are always looking for “optimal” level of arousal
Intrinsic MOtivation
a motivation to take actions that are themselves rewarding
Extrinsic MOtivation
motivation to take actions that are not themselves rewarding, but that leads to reward
- Extrinsic rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation
Social Exclusion Theory
humans have an underlying need to belong, which drives behavior and influences emotion
- not quantity, but quality of social suppot
Social Comparison Theory
seek out company of those who are in the same emotional state that we are currently experiencing
- Anxious ridden people seek out other anxious people for company
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
human beings are motivated to satisfy a variety of needs. Some needs must be satisfied before others so he created a hierarchy with the most immediate needs on the bottom and the most deferrable needs at the top
Emotion Systems in the Brain
- Left Hemisphere dominant people show greater positive affect
- Right hemisphere dominance redicts negative affect
- Left brained people recover from negative emotions quicker than right brained people
- Mindfulness research showed that rewiring of the brain is possible so that right-brained people can train themselves to feel more with their left brian
Goleman’s 5 Aptitudes of Emotional Intelligence
- Self-Awareness
- Self-Soothing
- Self-Motivation
- Empathy
- Effective Relating
- Delaying Gratification
